A tragedy, as all can see

As afternoon turned to evening on a warm Saturday last April, a bunch of teenagers and younger kids gathered in Hoffman Park in Albany’s South End. Some were hanging out, others playing basketball.

What happened next is plain for anybody to see, because one of the kids captured it on a cellphone video. There was a fight, and knives came out, and after a lot of feints and dashing about, and amid ignored shouts and pleas to drop the blades, there was a jab and a plunge, and the promising life of Tyler Rhodes — Albany High track star, college-bound student, much-loved friend and son and brother — was over.

Every homicide is a tragedy to someone, but this one was more so to many because this young man was the kind of kid everybody thought wasn’t going to be one of the countless victims of urban violence we so often read about in newspapers. Friends say he was a kind and cheerful guy who wrote and recorded anti-violence rap and worked at McDonald’s to earn the money to buy his little sister a bike. He had never been in a bit of trouble with the police.

But if you want to know what happened, you can check out the video on timesunion.com. It was entered as evidence in the homicide trial of one of the two teenagers charged with the murder. After considerable thought and conversation, Times Union editors decided last week that its news value made it essential that we post it for the public to see. Quite simply, it told an important story better than words alone.

We understood the posting would be controversial. If our charge was to keep the newspaper popular, we would do a lot of things differently.

Most of the response (though not all) has been critical, in voicemail, email, social media postings and personal conversations. Here are some that are typical:

“Putting up that video was disrespectful to all friends and family of Tyler,” one young woman wrote. “It feels like we lost him all over again.”

Another: “I am appalled. … I work at Albany High School as a teacher. …. My students couldn’t keep away from watching it, even if it upset them.”

And another: “I know the Times Union is in the business of making money but that was a very wrong move to make.”

Money-making is pretty far from the minds of editors when these decisions come before us. We weigh the first imperative of our ethics code — to seek the truth and report it fully — against the sometimes competing notion that we must minimize the harm that reporting may inevitably cause some people.

Against those standards, several editors weighed the question last week and agreed that the video from Hoffman Park — which was neither gruesome nor bloody, despite its awful ending — explained the tragedy as no set of words could. It showed ordinary kids, many of them desperately and quite responsibly trying to defuse the fight. It revealed how easily promising young lives can fall to violence.

The video images are sometimes hard to distinguish, but the action is undeniably shocking. Yet this kind of shock sometimes can ignite the dialogue required to bring change. If the video is a gut-kick that reminds people of how senseless the death of Tyler Rhodes was, and of how valuable are the lessons both at home and in schools in avoiding violence, it will have been worth whatever criticism the Times Union has absorbed.

We hear and understand the anguish of those touched by this crime. To ignore them would be heartless; to allow such sentiment to reset our journalistic principles would be just as wrong.

With technology putting video creation and distribution into more hands, we’re likely to have a lot of newsroom conferences about balancing the feelings of crime victims’ loved ones against the goal of giving the whole community an accurate reflection of what has occurred.

On Friday afternoon, a jury convicted Dhoruba Shuaib, 19, of manslaughter for his role in Rhodes’ death, accepting prosecutors’ arguments — shaped only after they had seen the video — that Shuaib had helped block Rhodes from fleeing. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

Trial for the alleged stabber, Jah-Lah Vandervorst, is set for March. He could go to prison for life.

Thus emerges the latest chapter of that tragic April evening. With all respect to those who disagree, I’m convinced our job of helping you understand the full story of the tragedy was better met by posting that video.

Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union.

Rex Smith

37 Responses

It’s very good that many friends of the young men were telling the guy with the knife to put it away. Can’t help wondering, though, if the cellphone used to film the entire incident couldn’t have been put to better use calling 911.

While I personally do not disagree with posting the video, I think this argument is slightly disingenuous at best. Please do not patronize your readers into believing that the Times Union or Hearst Corporation do not benefit from this publicity. Journalistic integrity is valid and I don’t disagree, but I’d find it hard to believe that on some level the TU and its staff were not chomping at the bit to be the first to post this video for monetary or personal gain.

This makes me so sad. Everyone involved in this tragic incident has lost, there are no winners. Please stop fighting, pride is not everything but respect is. Love and respect do not end and ruin lives.

Your decision to post this video was wrong regardless of your reasoning. How do you think his family feels now knowing the number of people who have now seen their beloved loved ones life come to a tragic end? By posting this video on your site it has now been posted on other websites for even more people to view. As someone who knows this family I am sickened by this decision. His younger sister now has to go to school wondering how many of her classmates have viewed this. I am truly disappointed by your actions and hope that if something similar was ever to happen you would think twice about posting it again.

I think it was the right thing to do. Maybe this will give the kids of todays world a lesson violence is not the answer. As a mother three were three lives lost that day in the park.You showing the video may inpact one persons life that would be a great thing. You are not the first one that showed that video its been posted a hip hop web site the full thing and its been there for awhile.

you’ve made your point. As media, however, we still havea social responsibility to protect our community from further harm, but also to diminish the notion that any news is sensational. yes, report the news. but to further harm those involved, is not part of reporting.
there is further backlash coming to those that were there, families involved. words were enough.

I am a long time friend of Stacey Rhodes, we went to high school together. I understand that you wanted to make people see that Tyler was taunted. But what you EDITORS, have to realize that was the last breath time Ms. Rhodes saw her son. She knew he was at the park that day, whether or not it wasn’t bloody or not, I feel the EDITORS of the Times Union really need to think about the hurt and suffering that
she went through and to view that video is not only disturbing and just sad, I feel the story was more important then you think about Tyler sister who goes to school and has peers that are talking about it on the social networks and so forth. I feel this video was posted not thinking about the hurt it was going to cause and not only do you explain yourself Rex Smith but you refer to the video again for people to watch. Very unheartfelt and CRUEL.

It’s disgusting that you posted the video. You may choose to hide behind the code to “to seek the truth and report it fully,” but it doesn’t hold water here. Good journalists, with a true sense of integrity, could have easily done so without showing the video. My nephew is a friend of the boy who was killed and, just near the deceased teens birthday (feb. 1), you release this video. Shame on you.

My nephew didn’t need to see it, nor did his friends or other members of the AHS track community. The only thing positive that you managed to generate was the number of visitor hits to your website, which I’m sure makes your advertisers happy. Other than that, you have done nothing positive for this community with releasing the video. Nothing. Again, Shame on you, TU.

I wonder how you’d feel if you had to watch a video of your son or daughter dying a terrible death? Or maybe your mom dying? I’m sure it would make you sick. I’m disappointed in the Times Union. Makes me think that publicity is more important than humanity to this company. Shame on you, Rex Smith for making excuses in this blog post, too.

Seriously? I would bet every last dime that had the victim been of the 1%, that video would not have had a public airing by this newspaper. I guess the end really is near for traditional “journalism.” You just hastened it for me.
As a side note: you owe the entire Albany High student body a day of education, which was lost to a viewing of the violent death of their classmate. SHAME ON YOU!

Thank you for your condensending blog about why you chose to put this awful video on your website. No parent should ever have to bury their children. The incredible amount of pain that never goes away for parents that lose their children is indescribeable. The pain this mother feels is always going to be there so because of your “journalistic responsiblity” you chose to make her pain even worse. I hope you can sleep at night. I hope that this “blog” makes you feel better and never think of it again, but his mother, family and friends go to bed feeling the pain of him not being here. Maybe if we had more human compassion these things wouldn’t happen anymore…thanks for not helping the situation with your supreme lack of compassion.

I applaud the TU for having the courage to post the video. All too often, we are isolated from the tragic events that happen in our communities. The TU has an obligation to report the truth; posting the video furthers that obligation.

As for those who hold that it’s painful for the family, don’t you think that ANY reporting of the incident is hurtful? How about the repeated criminal appeals by the now-convicted defendant, which can drag on for years? How about the parole appearances every two years after eligibility? I expect that those occurrences are much more hurtful than what amounts to a momentary posting of a factual item.

Without actually seeing what happened, our community’s children cannot absorb the horror of the incident; the rest of us would sit idly by, isolated and insulated in our living rooms, watching sports on our oversized TV’s, stuffing our already oversized selves as we comfortably muse that “at least it wasn’t my kid” or “good thing it didn’t happen in my neighborhood,” instead of being galvanized to take steps to ensure that similar events don’t happen.

And by the way, where’s Reverend Charlie with a knife-buy-back program? It seems lately that Albany is much more stabby than shooty…..

…Folks, please see the main point here, this is how the young people in that park reacted that day!!! See it for yourself, watch the video. It SHOULD bother all of you because this was life — and the end of life for three — on that afternoon. It wasn’t all that unusual except that someone was callous enough to video it.
As a news reporter who worked in the Capital District for nearly 40 years, I reported on way too many incidents like this. Don’t blame the editors and reporters who have taken on the responsibility of bringing stories like this to the public, in whatever form — words, pictures and now video. It is now YOUR responsibility to put an end to this violence, to the too-casual attitude that violence is the way to prove “I AM A BETTER MAN/WOMAN THAN YOU!” People DIE because of violence…it’s a fact of life and facts are what journalists deal with.
Don’t blame the messenger for bring your attention to this…blame yourselves collectively for not taking this kind of violence much more seriously. As Rex notes, there were several editors discussing whether to post the video (which, as I understand it was already available on-line). How many of you (the community) will get together to take action bring an end to this all-too-common kind of violence?
Or will most of you say yourself: ‘I did my part. I blamed the newspaper.’ and forget about it until the next shooting, stabbing, gang assault?

I agree with an above poster that linking the video again in your “Don’t blame me, blame our ethics” rant was VERY distasteful. Say what you will, you are entitled to your opinion, but that was just plain unnecessary.

How sad. Every person there had a cell phone,people living in those houses across the street had to hear what was going on and could have done something and cars were driving by and no one called the authorities. The boy who was just convicted could have had a terrific future if he had walked away,as could all of those kids. I do understand the strong emotions that this video has for many of the people who knew the victims,both the young boy killed as well as the other two boys. This is a pivotal moment in the lives of all of the others who witnessed this as it happened and for their friends who now have to make some adult decisions on how to live the rest of their lives. May it change them for the better and lead them to be remember that afternoon and want more for their lives.

I viewed the video and was extremely disturbed by it. I am a mother of two and immediately felt sorrow for the parents of Tyler Rhodes. My first response was anger for the posting. However, after the initial shock wore down I realized how impacted I was by the video. I had remembered hearing about the killing but I was guilty of brushing it off by excusing it as another typical Albany violence. It wasn’t until I seen the video that I truly understood the story and felt the emotions I should have had earlier. The parents of Tyler may be upset by the posting of this video but hopefully they can find some peace in that Tyler’s story has been told and can now even more effectively send the message to today’s youth and their parents to end violence. Anyone who sees this video is going to feel differently about the “typical Albany violence” and hopefully at least work with themselves and their children to end this nonsense.

@13 nails it. From where I sit every teen in Albany should be REQUIRED to watch the video, simply to illustrate how quickly your life can be ended/ruined in the most normal of situations if you don’t smarten up.

It is the normalcy of the video which is disturbing. Not a back alley, middle of the night situation. Park. Daylight. Kid dribbling a basketball. Suddenly, because someone thinks a knife is a normal way to solve a beef, and the poor victim doesn’t want to “be a punk” by using his track skills to run the hell away, one dead, two in prison for, let’s face it, life.

Oh yeah, and because no one present, including the adult shown, had the courage/brains/humanity to slap the stabber beforehand across the face. Which probably would have ended it.

For anyone with so much to say about “Freedom of Information” and TU’s right’s or your opinions, anyone consider the victim or his family? Did they have rights or opinions involved? (Did Rex or the “several” editors discussing to post this video go to this young mans mother?) Tell me how this video is going to help stop violence / or how anyone can benefit! Where is the social responsibility?

I applaud the TU for posting the video. I hope that every kid at AHS, and every other school, watches it and sees how in the flash of a second, your life could be ended for trying to prove you are bigger/badder/stronger than someone else. All that jockeying around and horseplay was for show, but all it took was 1 second for Tyler’s life to be ended. A split second decision to send a knife into someone’s heart ruined the lives of 3 kids. This stuff happens every day and to pretend it doesnt is ridiculous. Kids need to see this and understand the consequences of their actions…not be sheltered from it. That is going to lead to it happening over and over again.

No matter how you try to explain it,posting that video was wrong.We all know what happened that day at the park,we don’t need to see it.My heart aches for his family and friends.I cannot imagine losing your child,then being forced to see a video of his last moment alive.Very poor taste.DISGUSTED.

Since the T-U is suddenly all about giving people a better understanding of how young lives can be erased so carelessly, bring on the dying images of the kid shot by his friend with his father’s gun; or the kids in suburbs and rural areas overdosing on prescription drugs; or the kids killed when their friends drag race or drink and drive. Why stop now…you’ve got a job to do.

Rex, the Times Union did the right thing in posting the video. People who “don’t need to see it” are hiding from the world. THIS is the world we live in. It is a nasty, violent, brutal world that can only be tamed by the truth. To hide this video, and to wish it to remain hidden, is to be complict with the actual crime itself.

People opposed to making this video publically available are playing right into the gang-bangers’ hands. That is exactly what they want, because with video evidence supressed their kind can get off scott-free. So, good work you nay-sayers, I’m sure the crips and bloods are proud of you. As for the rest of, we stand on the side of truth and justice…

Your decision to publicize the video of Tyler Rhodes was, to say the least, a poor one. As one of the leading media outlets for our community you chose to exploit the brutal murder of a young man, thereby promoting the collective mindset that devalues human life.
Many of us beleive that even in business, the foundational value of treating others with dignity still applies. You have lost my respect.

If there was video of a child being raped would post that too? To “enhance your coverage”? When dictators and terrorists are killed, video is selectively edited or withheld all together. Really wish the family of this child could be given that same amount of respect.

I am another of two young children…I could not imagine, ever, losing one of my children. Burying a child is not something any parent should ever have to do. With that said, I understand the journalistic point of view…understand, not agree with. This video was entered as evidence in a trial and that’s where it should have stayed. This incident had nothing to do with gangs, or bloods, or crypts, and I’m sure the person who said that in their comment gets to sit on their comfy couch in their suburban home all while thinking they are an expert on the goings on in the projects. Get real. The bottom line here has nothing to do with stopping violence, or teaching kids what not to do, it has everything to do with respecting a mother who watched her amazing son walk out the door for the day assuming he would come back and never did. Yes, while I’m sure Stacey knew what went down that day, I’m sure watching it on a local newspapers website and reading about it in their paper, was much worse. I would lie, to know also, as one of the previous comments asked, did your editing staff contact Ms. Rhodes and ask her if it was ok with her to post this. News is news, and I get that, but this wasn’t your tradedgy to share. If it was on other websites, shame on them too. But this newspaper is in our faces and Stacey’s. Rex, did you and your staff discuss that during your meeting? Did you discuss how you all would feel watching your child take his or her last breath over and over again. Did you stop and think what his little sister would think and how the viewing of this video will affect her future? Yes, the violence needs to stop, yes, we all agree on that one…but this supposed difficult decision that you and your staff made, was the wrong one. Your disrespecting the feelings and hurt that these three familys are and have been going through. While the idea of future prevention was there and maybe even appreciated TU, at the end of the day, it was a poor decision to make. You should have put more heart into this decision.

I’m in awe that you decided to publish some ridiculous “explanation” rather than a heartfelt apology to the Rhodes family. Of course, an apology would mean that you recognized your unconscionable decision and chose to take action to remedy the situation. Since you have done neither, I can only conclude that you (and consequently, your newspaper) are out of touch with the needs/wants of the majority of your readership. And, despite your ill-formed explanations, 90% of your readers can see through your nonsense. You used the murder video of a teenager from your own community to promote your newspaper. What a terrible thing to do (no matter how you try to spin it).

Posting the video of Tyler’s death was sadistic. It victimized our children all over again. Is it not bad enough our children had to deal with the death of their beloved friend? What about Tyler’s sister who never saw the video in the court room? It is unconscionable that all the editors sat around and thought this ws a good idea. You can spin your story any way you want, but the bottom line is your actions created a lot of harm to many innocent people. I hope you sleep as well at night as the family and friends of Tyler will after viewing your video.